Police may have robbery suspect

Two sought in hold-ups

Investigators are homing in on one of two men they believe was involved in both a home invasion and a kidnapping-turned-robbery late last week.

The robbers, armed with at least one pistol, told one of their victims they also had a semiautomatic rifle and planned to go on a crime spree, according to police.

"It's safe to say we have a person of interest," Athens-Clarke police Lt. Mike McKeel said Monday. "If things pan out, we would want to speak with him."

McKeel was concerned about the fact that the men told one of the victims they are planning more crimes.

The men first struck Thursday afternoon, when they forced their way into a University of Georgia student's home at University Garden apartments on Baxter Drive, police said.

In the second robbery, a Jefferson man who works at a local Home Depot told investigators that on Friday afternoon he went to the Rocksprings Homes apartment complex off West Broad Street to buy compact discs from a man he knows only as "Wayne," police said.

"Wayne" showed up with a second man, called "Zay," and asked the victim to ride with them to the store. Instead, they took him to a subdivision with "Fox" in the name, where Wayne drew a pistol and demanded the money, police said.

Although the victim had his wallet in his pocket, he told the robbers he had left it in his car at Rocksprings Homes; while "Wayne" rifled through the car looking for the wallet, the victim made a break for it.

The victim struggled with "Zay," who hit him in the head with a handgun before he escaped and ran.

"If they were going to shoot me, they were going to have to do it outside where people could see," the victim told police.

The robbers only managed to steal the man's keys, cell phone and cigarettes, police said.

The Jefferson man told officers the robbers drove a dark green two-door Honda Accord and that a PlayStation 3 console was in the back seat of the car - the same model gaming system stolen in the University Garden robbery.

The robbers also said they had an SKS semiautomatic rifle in the Honda's trunk and planned to go on a "rampage"; they also mentioned the nicknames of two other men they planned to go after, police said.